Search This Blog

Brilliant and entertaining nutritional blog...

I recently came across a fantastic blog about science and nutrition by a UK vet called Peter. He basically dissects nutritional research papers to determine if they are well-controlled or not. For example, most "high fat" diet research papers are flawed in one of the following ways:

1) Using trans fats (e.g. hydrogenated vegetable oils) as the source of fat.
2) Including 20% of calories from sugar (as glucose / sucrose / fructose)
3) Poor controls
4) Poor models (e.g. gene knockout mice that may or may not represent anything like human metabolism)
5) Biased assumptions leading to apparent "paradoxical" results rather than assessing the results with an open mind and considering that other models may be incorrect.

I highly recommend the blog, but it's perhaps a little heavy on the science jargon for those without a background in biology. Give it a go and see what you think:

I've gone through read every post and it's convinced me to at least give the ideas a try. I've reduced my carbohydrate intake again (I've already found the benefits of reduced carbohydrate, particularly sugar) and have increased my fat intake from butter, eggs, cream and cheese (I've always loved dairy and fortunately I'm not lactose intolerant). Interestingly, I've also reduced my vegetable intake (fruit intake has been almost zero apart from blueberries for some time anyway). So far, I'm up to around 50% of calories from fat and feeling great:

1) Increased libido.
2) Increased sensitivity to alcohol (this could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your point of view, but I've found it beneficial for my single glass of red wine in the evenings).
3) Higher calorie intake for the same bodyweight. I'm actually trying to gain weight (i.e. muscle mass from increased weight-lifting) and finding it more difficult on a higher fat / lower carb diet).
4) Better compatibility with LeanGains (i.e. the intermittent fasting I've posted about before). I find it easier to consume the large amount of calories in a short space of time if they are from fats.
5) Less desire to eat carbohydrates.

I still eat carbs, but only on lifting days to replenish the glycogen and encourage an insulin spike for muscle growth.

(I hope Peter doesn't mind me using one of his blog pictures as my post picture - if so, please let me know and I'll change it for something else, but this seemed very appropriate!).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I've been training consistently for about 8 years now and have made tonnes of mistakes along the way. Mostly it was trying to gain too fast and just getting fat.

I have a naturally small frame and generally weighed about 9 stone my whole adult life - see my early post.

Once I got rid of the fat, I was down to 110 lb (7 stone 12!). Since then, I've gone to the gym more than 1000 times.

I just updated my bodyweight graph, which I've kept since ~2008:

As you can see, it's been a very mixed journey! I let myself get much too fat, hoping that I could build muscle faster that way. I got better as I went along and I think I've got it nailed these last couple of years.
If I take out all the "noise" of the fat periods, and just take my low (lean) points, I get this:

I've gained 20 lb (18%) of my starting (lean) weight in 7 years. 12 lb of that was in the first two years. The last 5 years has been much slower.
If you're heavier / bigger than me, I expect …

In a very simplistic way, this makes sense. The UK is a fixed size, but its population is increasing, therefore prices go up. This is certainly the headline that's repeated endlessly on mainstream media. However, the subtlety that not everyone buys houses is lost in the noise. I doubt anyone under the age of 18 or over the age of 75 is buying houses for example. These days, it's also safe to assume that very few people under the age of 30 are either. (The average age of a first time buyer is now 30, compared with 23 in the 1960's.)

The other major factor in house prices is how much people are able to pay. Note that this is different from how much they are willing to pay. Unlike almost everything else we buy (with perhaps the exception…

Now that I'm cutting, and enjoying the new challenge of maintaining my strength while reducing calories, I can look back on my second "bulk".
As you know, I'm a small guy and not taking steroids. Therefore the rate at which I can gain muscle is going to be fairly slow. I'm confident that this is a reasonable real-world example of a typical rate of muscle gain however, so let's take a look.

This is the graph of my bodyweight over the course of my second bulking phase. As you can see, I started at the beginning of May 2011, weighing 120 lb. I stopped at the end of Feb 2012, weighing 140 lb. I was reasonably lean when I started. See my previous post.

Some points I want to stress:

This was real-world. I have a full-time job and all the usual stuff to worry about.I was lifting twice per week (roughly each muscle group every 4 days, which seems to be optimal for naturals). Lyle McDonald reckons every fifth day, although he tends to split muscle groups up more - sin…

Ever since I got my health and my wealth under control, I've been a lot happier and more relaxed.
I have a passion for learning, understanding and applying this knowledge to the real world. When I encounter a problem, I like to solve it using logic and morals and share what I've learned with others.
I have a degree in Biochemistry; qualified as level 2 Fitness Instructor (working towards level 3); taking a part-time evidence-based nutrition course and hold multiple local drug-free powerlifting records.
I have more than quadrupled my net worth since 2009 by using simple methods such as reducing my spending, increasing my savings and investing in appreciating assets.

About PoundCounter

Frustrated with the confusing information out there about health and personal finance?If there's one thing that most diet companies and banks are all too eager to help you lose, it's the pounds in your pocket rather than the pounds on your waist.I aim to provide the tools and information to help with both.